Formula field that creates URL won't generate as hyperlink in automated email

[leslieburke]

I have a formula field that I just to generate a URL. I use that URL in an automated email. When I add HTML to format the font and render that field as a hyperlink, it’s not working. I’m wondering if it’s something about the “_” in the formula. When I use markdown it works fine, but I can’t get my font formatting with markdown and I’ve found that HTML & markdown don’t dance together well.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Below are screenshots of my formula field, the output of the formula, and the way it looks in the email and the HTML in the email automation. (In case you’re wondering, the form is password protected.)

[Kuovonne]

@leslieburke

I’m wondering if it’s something about the “_” in the formula. When I use markdown it works fine, but I can’t get my font formatting with markdown and I’ve found that HTML & markdown don’t dance together well.

Yup. The problem is the combination of the underscore character, the html, and the markdown.

Since you don’t want a markdown link, you can try altering your formula to escape the underscore character in the formula field that builds the url. I like to use a second formula field in addition to the original formula field so that I have access to both the escaped and unescaped versions.

SUBSTITUTE(
  {Questionaire Link},
  "_", 
  "\\_"
)

[leslieburke]

@Kuovonne Thanks! That makes sense and I appreciate the veteran suggestion to have a second formula field for the escaped version.